The appointment of captains and assistant captains is a widespread practice in sports teams. Captains are used in ice hockey, football, soccer, fencing, golf, skiing, indoor volleyball and intramural teams. Many captains and their assistants have special powers. For example, in ice hockey, only captains and assistant captains have “the: privilege: of discussing with . . . a referee any questions relating to interpretation of rules that may rise during the progress of a game”. (USA Hockey Rules).
Upper case “C” and “A” letters are permanently affixed to blouses by silk-screening, sewing and adhesives. These processes require special equipment and in general cannot be used to immediately designate a captain or assistant captain on a blouse.
Liebe, Jr, U.S. Pat. No. 3,660,212; Hix, U.S. Pat. No. 4,264,666; Mahn, Sr. et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,904; So, U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,621; Dressler, U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,645; and Stahl et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,194,044 are exemplary of athletic lettering in the prior art.
Liebe, Jr., issued on May 2, 1972, discloses athletic lettering formed by knife spreading heat curable plastic on to a high-gloss release sheet and cutting out the lettering on the sheet. The lettering is joined to a garment by ironing at a temperature which is sufficient to fuse the lettering to the garment.
Hix, issued on Apr. 28, 1981, discloses athletic words or expressions formed by die cutting alphabet characters and script-type interconnections from a material that heat and pressure serves to bond the words or expression letters to a garment.
Mahn, Sr., issued on Sep. 9, 1986, discloses an emblem for clothing having a lower thermoplastic layer and a thermoset ink upper layer. The emblem is suitable for laundering at wash temperatures of 400 degrees F. and dryer temperatures of about 500 degrees.
So, issued on Jan. 5, 1988, discloses a multi-layer emblem comprised of an outer plastic layer that provides a visual display of an indicium cut from the material, a bonding layer of thermoplastic material bonded to the labeling layer and a pressure-sensitive adhesive on the other surface of the bonding layer. The adhesive layer provides temporary adhesion of the indicium to a textile fabric until heat and pressure are applied to activate the bonding layer and forms a permanent bond to the fabric.
Dressler, issued on May 17, 1994, discloses an emblem having at least one layer of pigmented polyurethane thermoplastic material and a transparent polyester plastic film carrier sheet. A die cutting computer controlled blade produces small letters that may be connected or separated from each other without penetration of the blade through the carrier sheet. The emblem is attached to a garment by heat and pressure.
Stahl, issued on Feb. 27, 2001, discloses an emblem for embroidery stitching. The emblem includes a fabric layer with a thermoplastic adhesive coating on one side of the fabric layer and a pressure sensitive adhesive coating that can be temporarily secured during embroidery to prevent distortion of the emblem. The emblem is heat-sealed to a substrate for attachment of the emblem.
Professional teams who can easily afford expensive new blouses seldom change captains and assistants. Amateur and scholastic sports teams frequently change captains and assistants but often do not change blouses because of cost and timing.
Captain and assistant captain positions are eagerly sought after and assigned to the “best” players of a team. A detachable, ready, easy to use emblem would allow coaches and athletic staffs to set player goals, make awards and develop leadership qualities in young athletes. It would reduce school, amateur and intramural sports costs and improve the functioning of a game.